One in an occasional series of articles looking at the candidates campaigning for statewide office.

Many politicians this time of year talk about reducing property or income taxes.

Kernan "Kerry" King, who is running for lieutenant governor, likes to talk about another tax: the "tax of corruption."

Rhode Island has too many "people who work the system for their own benefit, not for the people," he said. Their corruption is "a hidden tax on the way business is done in this state."

The state's economy is never going to grow, King said, until Rhode Island gets rid of no-show jobs and stops hiring law firms connected to political leaders.

He said the state has "an awful reputation for corruption."

"It's not necessarily the people that are bad. It's the culture that's bad," he said.

His solution involves tougher penalties for violations and hotlines for people to report abuse. (King recently failed to file a financial disclosure with the state Ethics Commission on time.)

King, 62, a Republican, grew up in Providence and spent most of his career in the insurance industry as a lawyer and chief marketing officer; eventually he became president of New England Life and a member of its board of directors. When the company was acquired by Met Life, he became an executive vice president and retired in 2002.

King has been married to his second wife, Christine, for 24 years and has five children and four grandchildren.

He believes government is too big, taxes are too high and welfare benefits are too generous.

King is also opposed to the proposed West Warwick casino.

The Harrah's option is bad for Rhode Island," he said. "It's awful."

He has no political experience but says his years of leadership in the insurance industry have taught him how to work with people and solve problems. Those skills, he says, can be valuable in public service.

"My style of management is not the military 'I'll tell you how to do it' way," he says, in a shot against his challenger in the Republican primary, Reginald A. Centracchio, former Rhode Island adjutant general. "He's a career bureaucrat. He's a nice fellow. He's a handsome guy with a nice smile."

When King announced in January, he was the only candidate and the state's Republicans came out in force.

Governor Carcieri said at the time: "I don't think we could have a better candidate for lieutenant governor."

That support has since dissipated with many Republicans backing Centracchio or remaining neutral.

Centracchio entered the race late and won the party's nomination at a convention that King alleges "was rigged."

King said party leaders waited for his supporters to leave before taking a vote.

"If it was taken two hours earlier, I would have won," he said.

While Centracchio got a late start, he is well known.

"Name recognition doesn't mean you're qualified. [Weatherman] John Ghiorse has terrific name recognition, but that doesn't mean he's qualified to run the state," King said.

Being a political neophyte is an advantage, King says, because he isn't close with current politicians, making him less susceptible to corruption.

"It's very hard to go against your friends," he said. "It's very hard to throw them under the bus."

King has not voted in Rhode Island since the late 1960s. During his career as an insurance executive he made Massachusetts, and later Florida, his primary residence. On Nov. 9, he registered to vote in Rhode Island, using the address of a Narragansett house he has owned for 25 years but didn't make his full-time home until the fall.

(King needed a reporter's help navigating around the state on a recent drive.)

He shrugs off carpetbagger attacks saying: "If that's the best shot they have against me . . ."

King's father, grandfather and great-grandfather were in the funeral and embalming business. His mother was a nurse but was essentially a full-time homemaker. He describes himself as a shy kid who, over the years, became an extrovert.

King has a bachelor's degree in English from Providence College, a law degree from Boston University and a master's degree in taxation law from Boston University.

"I've had a very, very successful business career," King said. "I've solved thousands of problems, worked with thousands of people."

In his spare time, King says, he reads business publications, adding that The Economist should be mandatory reading for all state workers.

King said voters need to consider the governor and lieutenant governor a team and vote that way. If you are going to support Democrat Charles J. Fogarty for governor, King says, don't vote for him.

"I don't want to be Charlie Fogarty's lieutenant governor," King said.

So why seek public office?

"When I go upstairs," he said pointing to heaven, "I need to answer to Him what I did in life."

smayerow@projo.com / (401) 277-7513